State Briefs

Published 6:00 pm, Tuesday, January 26, 2010

anti-gang sweep leads to 43 Texas arrests

McALLEN - Immigration officials have announced the arrests of 43 gang members and associates in Texas, part of more than 400 arrests in a national anti-gang operation.

U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement said Wednesday that “Project Big Freeze” targeted transnational gangs with links to international drug cartels. There were 476 total arrests around the country.

Agents made arrests last week in San Antonio, Harlingen and Laredo and 80 other cities around the country. More than 360 of those arrested were foreign nationals.

ICE worked with the Drug Enforcement Agency and local law enforcement in making the arrests.

Waterway opens to limited traffic

PORT ARTHUR - The Sabine-Neches Waterway in southeast Texas has opened to limited traffic following a weekend oil spill when two vessels collided.

The U.S. Coast Guard said the waterway next to Port Arthur reopened Wednesday.

On Saturday, 462,000 gallons of light crude oil spilled into the water from the Eagle Otome. The 800-foot tanker collided with a towboat pushing two barges. The damaged Otome was moved to the Sunoco oil terminal in Beaumont on Tuesday evening.

The Coast Guard says about 534,000 gallons of an oil and water mixture have been recovered. Work continues to recover oil.

The Coast Guard says six birds were found covered with oil. Two were found dead and the remaining four are being cleaned and treated.

man guilty of unlawful film copying

DALLAS - An Oklahoma man faces up to five years in prison over the unlawful copying of more than 150 films while he worked at a movie store in Dallas.

Campbell admitted pirating at least 151 movies, including recently released films such as “Beowolf,” ’’27 Dresses” and “Mad Money.”

The store owner faces trial in March on similar charges.

Countrywide scrapped Texas pact in December

AUSTIN - Bank of America is explaining its cancellation of a jobs contract that a recent acquisition had with the state.

It says it killed Countrywide Home Loans’ deal because a severe mortgage business decline prevented Countrywide from adding 7,500 jobs promised to Texas.

The Charlotte, N.C.-based company said Wednesday the complexities of its merger with Countrywide also factored in the contract cancellation as of Dec. 31. Countrywide had a $20 million deal to create 7,500 new jobs by the end of 2010 and maintain them for a year.

Bank of America spokesman Rick Simon says the bank’s keeping a large presence in Texas, with almost 23,000 employees.

Meanwhile, Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday the Texas Enterprise Fund has been highly successful in bringing jobs to the state and has adequate safeguards and oversight.

2 Texas death row inmates lose appeals

HOUSTON - The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the conviction of a Houston man condemned for fatally shooting a young couple during a carjacking.

Dexter Johnson was an 18-year-old ninth-grade dropout when he was arrested for robbing 23-year-old Maria Aparece and her 17-year-old boyfriend, Huy Ngo. The woman was raped and both were shot to death in the June 2006 attack. Their bodies were found in northeast Houston.

In a second case Wednesday, the state’s highest criminal court upheld the death sentence of Douglas Tyronel Armstrong for the April 2006 robbery of Rafael Castelan outside a bar in Donna in Hidalgo County in south Texas. Evidence showed Castelon’s neck was slashed with a box cutter.

Johnson and Armstrong do not have execution dates and still may pursue federal appeals.

Residents in landslide balk at arbitration

AUSTIN - Several homeowners from a San Antonio neighborhood where a landslide threatened to topple and crush houses complained to state lawmakers Wednesday that mandatory arbitration clauses used in many new home contracts harm them.

Charles Cervantes, 61, said he’s stuck because the home he fled Sunday near the landslide in northwest San Antonio is worthless. Like contracts for most new homes, his contract included a clause requiring him to submit to binding arbitration with the builder, giving up his right to sue, in any dispute over the construction of his house.